Method and apparatus for printing a billing statement to provide supplementary product sales

ABSTRACT

A central controller such as one operating for a credit card account issuer receives one or more billing items which are to be printed on an account holder&#39;s billing statement. The central controller determines if the billing items, which typically specify purchases, satisfy any merchant-specified upsell offer conditions. Some upsell offer conditions include the purchase of a predetermined product, or a purchase which exceeds a predefined price. Such upsell offer conditions, when satisfied, direct the central controller to offer an upsell on the billing statement. If any of the upsell offer conditions are satisfied, the central controller determines one or more upsells that correspond to the upsell offer condition. The upsells may be, for example, products complementary to previously-purchased products. The upsells are offered to the account holder by printing onto the billing statement indicia that specifies the upsells. Upon receiving an indication that an upsell was accepted, the upsell is provided to the account holder. The account holder may accept the upsell by appropriately modifying the billing statement and returning the statement with payment. The upsell is then provided, typically in the form of a reduced price at a point-of-sale terminal or a discount on a subsequent billing statement.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for generatingbilling statements, and more specifically to methods and apparatus forusing billing statements to provide supplementary product sales.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many businesses provide each of their customers with a billing statementdetailing the customer's charges over a period of time. For example,credit card issuers provide each of their account holders with a billingstatement that lists each transaction, such as purchases and payments,which have been applied against their credit card account. Eachtransaction listed on the statement (each “billing item”) specifies atransaction amount, such as a purchase price debited to the account or apayment credited to the account. Billing items may further comprisemerchant-specified text identifying the transaction, such as a merchantname, merchant address and/or merchant telephone number. A billingstatement further includes an amount of payment due which is calculatedby aggregating the transaction amounts.

Billing statements may also be used for advertising to account holders.Many merchants pay one or more credit card issuers for the ability topromote goods and services in flyers that are sent with credit cardbilling statements. For example, NewSub Services, Inc. is a merchantthat advertises magazine subscriptions through attachments to billingstatements. In this manner, an account holder's billing statement canserve as a medium for advertising to that account holder.

Billing statements may also be used for notifying account holders ofrewards they have earned. First Data Corporation's U-$ave programprovides a reward, such as a 10% discount, to each account holder whohas met predetermined criteria. The account holder's billing statementindicates the discount earned, and an amount of payment due is adjustedand printed on the statement. Similarly, the American Express CustomExtras program and Express Rewards program each allow merchants tospecify reward criteria. Account holders that meet the criteria arenotified on their billing statement of what reward they have earned.

Billing statements thus serve to notify account holders of transactionhistory, merchant promotions and rewards earned. At best, merchants hopethat such notification may generate some future sales. However, like alladvertising, the notification may be ignored by the account holders, andno future sales to the account holders are guaranteed.

It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for utilizingbilling statements in a more efficient manner to generate additionalsales to account holders.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide methods and systemsusing automated, predetermined criteria to print upsell offers forproducts on a billing statement and allowing account holders to purchasethose offered products using the billing statement.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a central controller,such as one operating for a credit card account issuer, receives one ormore billing items which are to be printed on an account holder'sbilling statement. The central controller determines if the billingitems, which typically specify purchases, satisfy any merchant-specifiedupsell offer conditions. The upsell offer conditions may include thepurchase of a predetermined product or a purchase which exceeds apredefined price.

Such upsell offer conditions, when satisfied, direct the centralcontroller to offer an upsell on the billing statement. If any of theupsell offer conditions are satisfied, the central controller determinesone or more upsell offers that correspond to the upsell offer condition.The upsell offers may be, for example, discounts on predeterminedproducts, especially products complementary to previously purchaseproducts. The upsells are offered to the account holder by printingindicia specifying the upsells onto the billing statement.

The account holder may accept the upsell offer, for example, by circlingor marking a corresponding “check box” on the billing statement andreturning the statement with payment. Upon receiving an indication thatan upsell offer was accepted, the upsell is provided, typically in theform of a reduced price at a point-of-sale terminal or a discount on asubsequent billing statement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an apparatus for using a billingstatement to provide an upsell offer to an entity.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a central controller of theapparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of an upsell database of the centralcontroller of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of another embodiment of an apparatusfor using a billing statement to provide an upsell offer to an entity.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a record of an account holdertransaction database of the central controller of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method for using a billingstatement to provide an upsell offer to an entity.

FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of exemplary entries of the upselldatabase of FIG. 3 and the record of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Unlike systems which use a billing statement merely to notify an accountholder of what he has already been awarded, the methods and apparatus ofthe present invention provide an automated system using predeterminedcriteria to print on a billing statement an offer for one or moreproducts (goods or services) or other upsells to an account holder, andto allow the account holder to purchase those offered products using thebilling statement.

Since each billing statement records portions of an account holder'spurchase history, and is almost certain to be read by the accountholder, the billing statement may be advantageously employed to offerand sell products complementary to previously-purchased products to theaccount holder. The offered product is determined from previouspurchases that are recorded on the billing statement, and accordinglymay be a product that the account holder is more likely to purchase. Notonly may the offered product be related to previous purchases, theoffered product may also be desirably priced. The merchant may set theprice for the offered product attractively low, because the certainty ofrepeat business from the account holder can partially or fully fund thediscount. Also, the merchant may be able to offer the complementaryproduct at a substantial discount by requiring that the account holderfirst qualify for the offer by purchasing a first product at full price.

Furthermore, the billing statement containing the offer arrives a periodof time after the account holder has made purchases recorded on thatbilling statement. During that period of time, the account holder mayhave reconsidered those purchases and realized that a complementaryproduct should have been purchased as well. For example, an accountholder may buy a television, and a week later wish he had also bought awarranty. Rather than making a second trip to the store, it is moreconvenient for the account holder to accept an offer in his billingstatement for a warranty. Account holders therefore benefit from beinginformed of potentially-desirable related products, and the opportunityto purchase those products conveniently. In summary, account holderstake an active role by responding to the offers in their billingstatements, rather than passively receiving advertising or awardnotification.

Merchants likewise benefit from the generation of additional sales,which increases the likelihood that account holders will continue topurchase from the merchant. Furthermore, since the merchant maydetermine what products are offered, the merchant can manage itsinventory in an efficient manner while also generating additionalprofits.

The description that follows is arranged into the following sections:Registration by Merchants, Printing Statements with Upsell Offers,Receiving Acceptance of Upsell Offers and Providing Upsells.

Registration by Merchants

Referring to FIG. 1, an apparatus 10 comprises a central controller 12in communication with each of merchant terminals 14, 16 and 18. Thecentral controller 12 may be in communication with the merchantterminals 14, 16 and 18 through any of a number of known connectionmethods, such as through an Internet connection or a wirelesscommunication protocol. The central controller is typically operated byor on behalf of a credit card issuer, such as CitiBank, a credit cardclearing house, such as First Data Corporation, or a productmanufacturer, such as Sony Corporation. Each of the merchant terminals14, 16 and 18 is a data entry device accepting data generated by or onbehalf of a merchant such as a retail store. For example, the merchantterminals 14, 16 and 18 may be store computers operated by merchantemployees, telephones interfacing with a voice response unit (VRU) ormay be credit card issuer terminals operated by the issuer's accountmanagement representatives.

Each of the merchant terminals 14, 16 and 18 collects input informationregarding “upsells” which a merchant desires to offer on billingstatements, and in turn transmits the information to the centralcontroller 12 for storage. As used herein, an “upsell” is a productwhich is offered on a billing statement for a predetermined upsellprice. Types of upsells which are described in detail herein include anadditional product for a discounted price, and a voucher which isredeemable for a product or a discount thereon. Various other types ofupsells may be offered on billing statements without departing from thescope and spirit of the present invention.

The merchant terminals 14, 16 and 18 are computers, network terminals,telephones or other devices for transmitting the information regardingupsell offers to the central controller 12. Although three merchantterminals are shown in FIG. 1, any number of merchant terminals may bein communication with the central controller 12. The merchant terminals14, 16 and 18 can encrypt the information regarding upsell offers forsecurity purposes, and transmit the encrypted information to the centralcontroller 12, which decrypts the encrypted information. Many encryptionand decryption techniques are well known, and described in the text“Applied Cryptography, Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C”,Second Edition, by Bruce Schneier.

Referring to FIG. 2, the central controller 12 comprises a processor 20,such as one or more conventional microprocessors, which is connected toeach of a data storage device 22, such as an appropriate combination ofmagnetic, optical and semiconductor memory, and a printer 24. Theprocessor 20 is in communication with each of the merchant terminals 14,16 and 18. The processor 20, the storage device 22 and the printer 24may each be (i) located entirely within a single computer or othercomputing device; (ii) connected to each other by a remote communicationlink, such as a serial port cable, telephone line or radio frequencytransceiver; or (iii) a combination thereof. For example, the centralcontroller 12 may comprise one or more computers which are connected toa remote server computer for maintaining databases or printing largenumbers of billing statements.

The storage device 22 stores (i) a program 26 for controlling theprocessor 20; (ii) an account holder transaction database 27; and (iii)an upsell database 30. The program 26 drives the processor 20 to operatein accordance with the present invention, and particularly in accordancewith the methods described in detail herein. The program 26 alsoincludes program elements that may be necessary, such as “devicedrivers” for allowing the processor to interface with the printer 24 andcomputer peripheral devices. Appropriate device drivers and othernecessary program elements are known to those skilled in the art, andneed not be described in detail herein. The databases 27 and 30 aredescribed in detail below and depicted with exemplary entries in theaccompanying figures. As will be understood by those skilled in the art,the schematic illustrations and accompanying descriptions of thedatabases presented herein are exemplary arrangements for storedrepresentations of information. A number of other arrangements may beemployed besides the tables shown. Similarly, the illustrated entriesrepresent exemplary information, but those skilled in the art willunderstand that the number and content of the entries can be differentfrom those illustrated herein.

Referring to FIG. 3, the upsell database 30 stores entries 32, 34, 36,38 and 40 which each define upsell offers, and which each include (i) amerchant identifier 42 for identifying the merchant providing theinformation, (ii) a condition identifier 44 for specifying at least oneupsell offer condition, (iii) an upsell identifier 46 for specifying anupsell to be offered when the at least one upsell offer condition ismet, and (iv) an upsell price 48 to pay for the upsell.

One type of upsell offer condition is a purchase of a predefinedproduct. For example, an upsell may be offered to an account holder ifthat account holder has purchased a 19-inch television. An upsell offercondition may also be predicated upon a purchase price. For example, anupsell may be offered if a purchase is for more than a predefined price,or if a purchase is for a price within a predefined price range. Anothertype of upsell offer condition is that a predefined number of purchaseshave been made. A further upsell offer condition is that a predeterminedmerchant has not been visited by the account holder (i.e. each of aplurality of purchases were made at a merchant other than apredetermined merchant). In addition, another type of upsell offercondition may be that a predetermined type of merchant has been visitedby the account holder. Information on the type of merchant affiliatedwith a purchase is typically available by credit card issuers and creditcard clearing houses, and can be provided in the form of StandardIndustry Classification (SIC) codes generated and managed by the U.S.Department of Labor.

Many types of upsells may be offered when the corresponding upsell offercondition is satisfied. One type of upsell is a reduced price on aproduct or a discount off a purchase price, for example, a warranty on atelevision, or a $50 reduction in a purchase price to be paid. Anothertype of upsell is a certificate which entitles the account holder to areduced price on a product or a discount off a purchase price. Since themerchant determines which upsells to offer, and under which conditionsthe upsells are offered, the merchant can efficiently manage its revenueand inventory when offering upsells. Accordingly, merchants can offersubstantial discounts to account holders who have made a profitable,qualifying purchase.

Printing Statements with Upsell Offers

After the central controller 12 (FIGS. 1 and 2) stores informationregarding upsell offers for a merchant, that merchant may offer thoseupsells to account holders through billing statements. The centralcontroller 12 determines upsells to offer each account holder based onprevious transactions by the account holder. In addition, the centralcontroller 12 may also determine upsells to offer based further on theaccount holder's ability to pay for an offered upsell.

For each account holder, the central controller 12 (i) receives andstores billing items generated by transactions (e.g., purchases) on theaccount holder's account; (ii) determines if the billing items satisfyany upsell offer conditions stored in the upsell database 30 (FIG. 3);and (iii) if the billing items satisfy an upsell offer condition,determines an upsell corresponding to the upsell offer condition, andprints onto the billing statement indicia that specifies the upsell.Each of these steps is described below.

Receiving Billing Items

Transactions on an account holder's account, such as purchases andpayments, are recorded, received and stored by the central controller 12for use in generating a billing statement for the account holder. Thedescription that follows employs an embodiment in which the billingstatement is a billing statement of a credit card account. Those skilledin the art will understand that other types of statements, such astelephone bills, may be used without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, an apparatus 50 includes the central controller 12of FIG. 1 in communication with each of a point-of-sale (POS) terminal52 and a payment recorder 54. Although one POS terminal and one paymentrecorder are shown in FIG. 4, any number of POS terminals and paymentrecorders may be in communication with the central controller 12.Furthermore, those skilled in the art will understand that other devicesmay be in communication with the central controller 12 and transmitinformation thereto.

The POS terminal 52 is typically a card authorization terminal (CAT),such as those manufactured by Verifone, Inc., or a similar device forgenerating data relating to a purchase, such as purchase price and theitem(s) purchased. The POS terminal 52 transmits this generated data tothe central controller 12, thereby informing the central controller 12of information regarding the purchase. The central controller in turnstores this information in the account holder transaction database 27(FIG. 2). The POS terminal 52 may transmit information to the centralcontroller 12 in many different forms. For example, the POS terminal 52may include a credit card reader (not shown) which uses the MasterCardPurchasing Card Level III protocol to transmit product identificationand other purchase-related information to the central controller 12.

The payment recorder 54 is typically a computer or similar device thatallows entry of data regarding payments of account balances by accountholders. For example, the payment recorder 54 can be operated by dataentry personnel in the collection department of a credit card issuer.The payment recorder 54 transmits this data to the central controller12, thereby informing the central controller 12 of information regardingthe payments. The central controller likewise stores this information inthe account holder transaction database 27 (FIG. 2).

Referring to FIG. 5, a record 60 of the account holder transactiondatabase 27 (FIG. 2) defines the transactions applied against an accountholder account identified by an account identifier 62. The accountholder transaction database 27 (FIG. 2) typically includes a pluralityof records such as the record 60, each defining the transactions appliedagainst a different account holder account. The record 60 includesentries 64, 66, 68, 70, 72 and 74 which each describe a transactionapplied against the account holder account identified by the accountidentifier 62. Each of the entries 64, 66, 68, 70, 72 and 74 specifies(i) a transaction identifier 76 for uniquely indicating a transaction;(ii) a transaction type 78; (iii) a date 80 of the transaction; (iv) adate 82 when the transaction is “posted” (made available to the centralcontroller 12 of FIG. 4); (v) a transaction amount 84; (vi) a merchantidentifier 86 for specifying a merchant participating in thetransaction; (vii) an item identifier 88 for specifying an itempurchased, if any; and (viii) a description 90 of the transaction. Itwill be understood by those skilled in the art that any number ofentries may be used.

In summary, the account holder transaction database 27 storesinformation related to transactions by account holders. The storedinformation is in turn used to determine, for each account holder,whether the account holder should be offered an upsell, and if so whichupsell to offer.

Determining If Any Upsell Should Be Offered

The central controller 12 (FIG. 4) analyzes the transactions of eachaccount holder account, and typically analyzes the transactions of themost recent billing period (i.e. the current month). The upsell offersof the upsell database 30 (FIG. 3) are also analyzed in order todetermine which, if any, corresponding upsell offer conditions are metby the account holder transactions. If any upsell offer conditions aremet, and if the account holder has or will have sufficient creditavailable to pay the cost of the upsell, the corresponding upsells areoffered to the account holder.

Referring to FIG. 6, after receiving billing items for an accountholder's account (step 102), the central controller 12 (FIG. 4)determines if any of the billing items satisfy any upsell offerconditions (step 104). If the billing items satisfy an upsell offercondition (step 106), the central controller 12 determines an upsell andupsell price corresponding to the upsell offer condition (step 108). Thecentral controller 12 further retrieves the amount of credit availableto the account holder (step 110). If there is sufficient creditavailable to pay the upsell price (step 112), the central controller 12prints indicia that specifies the upsell onto the billing statement(step 114).

The step 112 assures that the account holder can “afford” to pay theupsell price. Such a requirement would satisfy a party such as a creditcard account issuer, who may not want the account holder to be indebtedfor an amount he may not be able to pay. Accordingly, the centralcontroller 12 may print the indicia that specifies the upsell only ifthe upsell price is not greater than a predetermined threshold. Forexample, the central controller 12 may print the indicia specifying theupsell only if the amount of available credit on the account exceeds apredetermined amount, such as the upsell price. In such an embodiment,the predetermined threshold would vary with each account holder account,and would vary over time as the amount of available credit changed.

Referring to FIG. 7, a portion of the upsell database 30 of FIG. 3 isreproduced in part to show the entry 32, which defines the upsell offerof the merchant 1234. A portion of the record 60 of FIG. 5 is alsoreproduced in part to show the entry 70. The entry 70 describes atransaction that meets the upsell offer condition specified by the entry32, namely a purchase of the item number 11223344. Accordingly, thecorresponding upsell, a movie soundtrack for $6.99, is determined andoffered on the billing statement of account “1111-1111-2222-2222”.

Those skilled in the art will understand that matching transactions withupsell offer conditions may be accomplished in many ways. For example,the central controller 12 may, for each entry in the upsell database 30,search for account holder accounts having transactions in the accountholder transaction database 27 that satisfy the corresponding upselloffer condition. Alternatively, the central controller 12 may, for eachaccount holder account in the account holder transaction database 27,search for upsell offer conditions in the upsell database 30 that aresatisfied.

The upsell offer condition will establish how the central controller 12processes the upsell data and the account transaction data to determinewhether the condition is satisfied by account holder billing items. Forexample, the central controller 12 may determine (i) if any billing itemindicates a purchase of a predefined product; (ii) if any billing itemindicates a purchase for more than a predefined price; (iii) if anybilling item indicates a purchase for a price within a predefined pricerange; (iv) if any billing item indicates that at least a predefinednumber of purchases have been made; (v) if each billing item indicatesthat each of a plurality of purchases was made at a merchant other thana predetermined merchant; or (vi) any combination thereof.

Printing Offered Upsell

If the central controller 12 determines that an upsell is to be offeredto an account holder, then the central controller 12 prints onto abilling statement indicia that specifies the upsell. Typically, thebilling statement is a sheet of paper that is printed with a laserprinter or similar printing device. The billing statement may also be anelectronic bill that is accessed and displayed by a computer, terminalor similar device.

The indicia that specifies the upsell typically comprises descriptivetext (e.g., “$100 off your next purchase at Merchant XX”) and an upsellprice to pay for the upsell. The indicia may further comprise aredemption code uniquely identifying the upsell. The central controller12 generates the code and prints the code on the billing statement. Inaddition, the printed indicia may further comprise a telephone number tocall in order to receive further information or authorization. Forexample, the text “To receive your upsell code, call 1-800-555-5555 andenter the upsell code 98765” may be printed on a billing statement.

Receiving Acceptance of Upsell Offers

Once indicia specifying upsell offer is printed onto a billing statementand the billing statement is provided to the account holder, the accountholder responds if he desires to accept any upsell(s) offered on thestatement. Once the central controller 12 receives an indication that anupsell was accepted, then the upsell is provided to the account holder.

The account holder may select offered upsells on the billing statementin many ways. For example, a check box may be printed on the statementfor each offered upsell. As used herein, the term “check box” refers toany portion of the billing statement that may be altered by the accountholder to indicate acceptance of a corresponding upsell. To accept anupsell, the account holder draws a check mark, draws a circle, punches ahole, removes a latex scratch-off coating or otherwise alters thecorresponding check box. The statement is returned, typicallyaccompanying payment for the account. The returned statement is receivedand processed to determine whether any check box was altered.

The returned statement may be processed manually or by a machine. Forexample, predetermined locations of the billing statement correspondingto the check box locations may be optically scanned for indicia ofacceptance. A signal indicative of whether the upsell was accepted isthereby generated. Alternatively, the statement may be read by a humanoperator, who in turn enters a signal indicative of whether the upsellwas accepted via a data entry terminal. The data entry terminal may be acomputer or other device that generates signals in accordance with userinput.

Rather than indicating acceptance of an upsell on a returned statement,the account holder may also indicate whether the upsell was accepted bytransmitting signals via a telephone voice response unit (VRU). As isknown in the art, typical VRUs allow an account holder to respond toqueries and enter data by calling a predetermined telephone number andpressing dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) buttons on his telephone. Insuch an embodiment of the present invention, the billing statement wouldbe printed with a telephone number to call, and one or more codes toenter to indicate selected upsells. The codes may be unique to thecredit card account of the account holder, or the account holder may beprompted to enter a credit card number to which the corresponding upsellprice is charged.

Acceptance of an upsell will often require payment of a predeterminedupsell price. Accordingly, the upsell may not be provided unless paymentof the upsell price is received or acknowledged by the centralcontroller 12. Payment of the upsell price may be rendered by beingmailed to the account issuer, or the account holder's account may becharged the upsell price, which requires less action by, and is thusmore convenient for, the account holder. If the account is a credit cardaccount or is otherwise associated with a financial identifier such as acredit card account number, then the use of that financial identifiermay be initiated to collect an upsell price from the account holder.

Once the upsell is provided and payment has been received, the centralcontroller 12 may have to reconcile the receipt of payment with theproviding of the upsell. For example, if the account issuer has receivedpayment, but the upsell is to be provided by a merchant, then theaccount issuer must in turn initiate payment to the merchant. Typically,such reconciliation will comprise an entry in a billing databasereflecting a payment or credit from the account issuer to the merchant.

Providing Upsells

The upsell is provided to the account holder by the merchant or by theaccount issuer on behalf of the merchant. In either case, the merchantis notified by the issuer regarding the account holder's acceptance ofthe upsell offer.

The upsell provided to the account holder may comprise reducing a pricecharged for a future purchase of a predetermined product or for apurchase comprising a plurality of products. Thus, the account holder isprovided with the opportunity to obtain a product or products at adiscount. The reduced price may be a reduction by a predeterminedamount, such as $20 off, or by a predetermined percentage, such as 10%off the purchase price. The reduced price may be generated when asubsequent billing statement is created, and the billing statement wouldinclude an account credit. Alternatively, the reduced price may begenerated during a subsequent transaction with a merchant. For example,when the price of a product is calculated at a POS terminal, the centralcontroller 12 may transmit an upsell code thereto. The centralcontroller 12, in turn, directs the POS terminal to subtract apredetermined amount from the price, thereby obtaining a reduced price.The use of upsell codes is described in pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 08/883,308, entitled “System and Method for Establishing andExecuting Functions to Affect Credit Card Accounts and Transactions”,filed on Jun. 26, 1997, incorporated herein by reference.

The upsell provided to the account holder may comprise a printedcertificate, such as a gift certificate or voucher, which is redeemablefor products or discounts on products. The printer 24 (FIG. 2) of thecentral controller 12 (FIG. 2) generates the certificate by printingpredetermined indicia onto a paper or other substrate. The centralcontroller 12 generates one or more codes, each of which identifies anaccount, product, price or discount. The central controller 12 may thengenerate an identifier, such as a bar code, based on each code, andprints the identifier onto the substrate.

Although the present invention has been described with respect to apreferred embodiment thereof, those skilled in the art will understandthat various substitutions may be made to those embodiments describedherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. For example, a great number of types of upsells and methodsof providing those upsells will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for generating a billing statement,comprising: receiving data identifying at least a first billing item;determining if the at least first billing item satisfies an upsell offercondition; determining an upsell offer corresponding to the satisfiedupsell offer condition; and generating the billing statement, thebilling statement including information specifying the upsell offer. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the at least first billing item includesdata identifying at least one transaction applied against a customeraccount.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least first billingitem includes at least one of: (i) information identifying a product;(ii) information identifying a merchant; and (iii) informationidentifying a purchase price.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining if the at least one billing item satisfies an upsell offercondition further comprises: determining a product type associated withthe at least one billing item; and determining if the upsell offercondition applies to the product type.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining if the at least one billing item satisfies an upsell offercondition further comprises: determining a purchase price associatedwith the at least one billing item; and determining if the purchaseprice satisfies the upsell offer condition.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein determining if the at least one billing item satisfies an upselloffer condition further comprises: determining a product type and apurchase price associated with the at least one billing item;determining if the upsell offer applies to the product type; anddetermining if the purchase price satisfies the upsell offer condition.7. The method of claim 1, wherein the upsell offer condition is at leastone of: (i) a purchase for more than a predetermined price; (ii) apurchase for a price within a predefined price range; (iii) a predefinednumber of purchases made; and (iv) a plurality of purchases, each madeat a merchant other than a predetermined merchant.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, in which the upsell offer condition is a purchase of apredefined product, and in which the step of determining if the at leastone billing item satisfies an upsell offer condition comprises:determining if the at least one billing item indicates a purchase of thepredefined product.
 9. The method of claim 1, in which the upsell offercondition is a purchase for more than a predefined price, and in whichthe step of determining if the at least one billing item satisfies anupsell offer condition comprises: determining if the at least onebilling item indicates a purchase for more than the predefined price.10. The method of claim 1, in which the upsell offer condition is apurchase for a price within a predefined price range, and in which thestep of determining if the at least one billing item satisfies an upselloffer condition comprises: determining if the at least one billing itemindicates a purchase for a price within the predefined price range. 11.The method of claim 1, in which the upsell offer condition is apredefined number of purchases made, and in which the step ofdetermining if the at least one billing item satisfies an upsell offercondition comprises: determining if the at least one billing itemindicates that at least the predefined number of purchases have beenmade.
 12. The method of claim 1, in which the upsell offer condition isa plurality of purchases, each made at a merchant other than apredetermined merchant, and in which the step of determining if the atleast one billing item satisfies an upsell offer condition comprises:determining if each of the at least one billing item indicate that eachof a plurality of purchases was made at a merchant other than apredetermined merchant.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein determiningan upsell further comprises: determining a price of the upsell.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, wherein determining an upsell further comprises:generating a redemption code associated with the upsell.
 15. The methodof claim 1, wherein determining an upsell further comprises: determiningcontact information to receive a redemption code associated with theupsell.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the billingstatement further comprises: printing indicia on the billing statement.17. The method of claim 16, wherein the indicia include at least one of:(i) an upsell offer price; (ii) an upsell offer product; and (iii) anupsell offer redemption code.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein thebilling statement is a customer account billing statement, the methodfurther comprising: determining an amount of available credit of thecustomer account; and wherein generating the billing statement is onlyperformed if the amount of available credit exceeds a predeterminedamount.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein the billing statement is acustomer account billing statement, the method further comprising:determining an amount of available credit of the customer account;determining an upsell price corresponding to the upsell offer; and ifthe amount of available credit exceeds the upsell price, generating thebilling statement.
 20. An apparatus, comprising: a storage device; aprocessor connected to the storage device; and a printer connected tothe processor; the storage device storing a program for controlling theprocessor; and the processor operative with the program to receive dataidentifying at least one billing item; determine if the at least firstbilling item satisfies an upsell offer condition; determine an upselloffer corresponding to the satisfied upsell offer condition; andgenerate the billing statement, the billing statement includinginformation specifying the upsell offer.
 21. An apparatus for providingan upsell offer, comprising: means for receiving data identifying atleast a first billing item; means for determining if the at least firstbilling item satisfies an upsell offer condition; means for determiningan upsell offer corresponding to the satisfied upsell offer condition;and means for generating the billing statement, the billing statementincluding information specifying the upsell offer.
 22. A method forproviding an upsell to an entity, comprising: generating a billingstatement including information specifying a first billing item and anupsell offer associated with the first billing item; forwarding thebilling statement to the entity; receiving an indication of whether theentity accepted the upsell offer; and if the upsell offer was accepted,providing the upsell to the entity.
 23. The method of claim 22, whereinproviding the upsell is performed only if payment of at least apredetermined upsell price is received.
 24. The method of claim 22,further comprising: initiating use of a financial identifier to collectan upsell price from the entity.
 25. The method of claim 22, furthercomprising: initiating payment to a third party account if the upsellwas accepted.
 26. The method of claim 22, wherein receiving theindication of whether the upsell was accepted comprises: selecting theupsell from a plurality of upsells.
 27. The method of claim 22, whereinreceiving the indication of whether the upsell was accepted comprises:scanning the billing statement for indicia of acceptance; and generatinga signal indicative of whether the upsell was accepted.
 28. The methodof claim 27, wherein scanning comprises: optically scanningpredetermined locations of the billing statement.
 29. The method ofclaim 22, wherein receiving the indication of whether the upsell wasaccepted comprises: receiving from a data entry terminal a signalindicative of whether the upsell was accepted.
 30. The method of claim22, wherein receiving the indication of whether the upsell was acceptedcomprises: receiving signals from a voice response unit.
 31. The methodof claim 22, wherein providing the upsell comprises: reducing a pricecharged.
 32. The method of claim 31, wherein reducing a price chargedcomprises: reducing a price charged for a predetermined product.
 33. Themethod of claim 32, in which the price is reduced by a predeterminedamount.
 34. The method of claim 31, wherein reducing comprises:determining a price; and subtracting a predetermined amount from theprice to obtain a reduced price.
 35. The method of claim 31, whereinreducing is performed at a POS terminal.
 36. The method of claim 31,wherein reducing is performed upon generating a subsequent billingstatement.
 37. The method of claim 22, wherein providing the upsellcomprises: printing a certificate.
 38. The method of claim 37, whereinprinting a certificate comprises: printing a predetermined identifieronto a certificate.
 39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:generating a code which identifies a predetermined product; andgenerating the predetermined identifier based on the code.
 40. Themethod of claim 38, further comprising: generating a code whichidentifies a predetermined price; and generating the predeterminedidentifier based on the code.
 41. The method of claim 38, furthercomprising: generating a code which identifies a predetermined discount;and generating the predetermined identifier based on the code.
 42. Anapparatus, comprising: means for generating a billing statementincluding information specifying a first billing item and an upselloffer associated with the first billing item; means for forwarding thebilling statement to the entity; means for receiving an indication ofwhether the entity accepted the upsell offer; and if the upsell offerwas accepted, means for providing the upsell to the entity.
 43. Anapparatus, comprising: a storage device; a processor connected to thestorage device; and a printer connected to the processor; the storagedevice storing a program for controlling the processor; and theprocessor operative with the program to generate a billing statementincluding information specifying a first billing item and an upselloffer associated with the first billing item; forward the billingstatement to the entity; receive an indication of whether the entityaccepted the upsell offer; and if the upsell offer was accepted, providethe upsell to the entity.